February 20, 2008
- Considering the fact that the World Series of Poker won't go down for another
several months, WSOP organizers have decided to revise the current tournament
schedule. Albeit the the changes are minor, you can still bet that thousands of
poker players and hopeful WSOP participants have already marked their calendars.

Another reason why the schedule change is newsworthy is because of the fact
that it applies to the $50,000 World Champion H.O.R.S.E event. Widely considered
to be one of the most elite poker tournaments in the World (largely because of
the scope of poker games and skills that H.O.R.S.E tournaments require of
players), the WSOP $50K H.O.R.S.E. tournament is sort of akin to the Super Bowl
or Academy Awards.

Maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit. Being a football, movie and poker fan
(okay, yes I'm exaggerating), the professional poker circuit still has a ways to
go to reach the popularity of movies and football. However, that doesn't take
away from the fact that the WSOP Championship is the premier poker tournament of
the year.

As for the changes to the H.O.R.S.E. tournament, instead of taking place at
12 Noon on Sunday, June 22, the tourny will now go down on Wednesday, June 25 at
5 p.m. Something more of a primetime slot perhaps? Taking the Sunday Noon slot
will now be the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball contest. The full tournament will
run from May 30 through July 16 this year, and will hand out fifty-five
different bracelets. That's a lot of poker events. And so are the buy-ins
(relatively speaking). They range from $1,000 to $50,000, with the main
tournament buy-in at $10K.

So the question remains: Does this change affect any scheduled satellite
tournaments at participating online poker rooms? Not that I know of. There are
always some late satellites taking place, but you can bet that WSOP will lock
the schedule very soon (if they haven't already) and online satellites will take
place as usual. If your poker room doesn't have a WSOP satellite schedule, you
are missing out my friend. There are plenty of good rooms out there that will
cover your buy-in. Get to playing!